How We Began
by sylvanius
Summary: 30 dates, 30 themes fic. Modern setting. D/N
1. First Date

**Okay, so this is another 30 themes fic except for instead of it being 30 kisses the theme is 30 dates. Again I do not have permission to use this theme list so if anyone has a problem with that, PM me. Another note, this is set in Modern times (which will be pretty clear when you start reading it) and will have a more linear approach than my 30 kisses fic (Surrender) meaning it will all connect.**

**Disclaimer: Not mine**

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Theme 1: First Date

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Daine entered her apartment in a rush, swearing softly when she saw the time. If she didn't hurry she'd be late. She ran to her small bedroom, shedding clothes on the way, and dug through her closet trying to find something decent to wear. She was trying not to let her excitement get to her as she finally settles on a formfitting dark blue sweater. It had been quite a while since she had had a date and she couldn't lie, she was really looking forward to this. Buttoning up her jeans she ran to her vanity and began to drag a comb through her curls, her mind going over the events of the previous Monday.

She had known Numair for a few weeks now, thought not in an overly personal manner. He had been tutoring her in her Biology class for the last few months and while she had felt attracted to him as more than a friend she had never dreamed that he may return the feeling and had never considered acting on it, deciding it was most likely just a passing interest, besides they moved in different crowds. To her delight however he had utterly surprised her on Monday night after their tutoring session. They had met at a café near the university that they both enjoyed and before leaving they had stood, waiting for their coffee orders, and chatted for a bit. When they had received them Daine had automatically said goodbye and turned to leave but was called back.

"Daine?" She had turned back to him and noticed that he was looking at her thoughtfully and leaning against the counter.

"Yes?"

"Would you like to go out with me on Friday night?" He smiled slightly at her and at first she was speechless before remembering that it would probably be good to answer.

"Yeah, uh, yeah. I'd love to."

"Good I'll let you know the plans later, okay?"

"That sounds great, I'll, uh, I'll see you later." She smiled at him widely, blushing a bit, and almost ran into a little old lady as she turned to leave.

Finally Succeeding in somewhat taming her hair, a sort of half bun that left many curls free but still out of her face, she ran to her closet to find a coat. Grabbing her red one she wrapped herself in it, slipping on a pair of black gloves and grabbing the matching hat and gloves on her way out the door and into the frigid February air.

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"You know, you never did tell me exactly what the plans were." Daine said as they walked down the street, their breath making small clouds in the air.

"I thought people liked surprises." He looked down at her, one eyebrow raised.

"What's in the bag anyway?" She asked, motioning to the duffel bag he had slung over one shoulder.

"Surprise" He grinned cheekily at her and she stuck her tongue out at him. After a few moments Numair stopped walking and looking at where they had ended up Daine balked.

"No, absolutely not, you are not getting me out there" She waved her hands in front of her, backing up.

"Oh come on, I went to all this trouble to find skates in your size, you have to." He said taking her hand in his and pulling her forward. "It will be fun."

"I'll break something."

"I'll hold you up, come on"

Daine looked out at the rink nervously as Numair tied up her skates. There were a number of other people out there, what if she _hit_ one of them? She saw a little kid skate by, supported by a small chair, dear god, what if she hit a _kid_?

"Okay, you're all set. Let's go." Numair said cheerily, patting her knee and standing up. She stood up, wobbly and stumbled to the edge of the rink. She lifted her hand to her mouth to bit her nails, forgetting that she had gloves on and ended up with fuzz in her mouth as Numair chuckled.

"Told you that was a bad habit." He stepped on to the ice and turned around easily, gliding backwards as he beckoned her to follow. She stepped onto the ice warily and to her absolute delight managed to set both feet on the ice and stay upright, though there was quite a bit of wobbling involved. She moved her felt back and forth a bit, trying to move. After a moment she finally managed to get herself moving forward, about an inch at a time but at least it was progress. Laughing, Numair came up behind her and put one arm around her waist and grabbed her hand with his other, holding it out, and began to propel them forward smoothly. Daine shrieked slightly in surprise and fear.

"Never skated before?" He asked, his voice close to her ear.

"Er, I have, just a very _very_ long time ago and not much." She bit her lip as he sped up. "Do we really have to go this fast?"

"Relax, I've got you." She couldn't help but trust him and soon found herself enjoying herself as he guided her around the rink.

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They stayed out on the rink for about three hours. By the end Daine could manage to skate on her own at a reasonable speed, although she fell more than a few times, much to her embarrassment, and was overall quite proud of herself. Numair had been very patient, going slowly with her when she tried it on her own and helping her up when she fell and of course when she got bored at going at speeds she could manage he would bring her into his arms and speed around the rink again while she laughed. Eventually the cold forced them to retire and they stopped in a small shop to get hot chocolate before he walked her home.

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Daine shivered slightly against the cold and hugged her hot chocolate to her as they walked down the street on the way to her apartment.

"Did you have fun?" He asked, glancing at her as he sipped his own drink.

"Oh, yes." She nodded, smiling.

"Good, I thought you were going to run away form me when you saw the rink." He teased lightly.

"Did you? Have fun I mean." She looked up at him, biting her lip and he smiled down at her.

"Yeah, I did" He smiled back at her as he dropped his now empty cup in a nearby trashcan and Daine followed suit. As they continued their walk Numair gently slipped his hand into Daine's' and she smiled to herself, blushing. When they reached Daine's apartment Daine felt a twinge of disappointment at having to end the date though it _was _getting very cold out. She turned around and looked up at him, her hand still in his.

"This is me" She said, unsure of where to go from there, as he smiled softly down at her. He nodded and they stood there for a moment, looking at each other, and he lifted his other hand and softly placed it on her cheek, leaning forward.

"May I?" He asked softly, and she nodded in response, eyes half closed. He leaned down and kissed her lightly, for only a moment before he pulled back and smiled at her. She looked up at him again, a goofy grin across her face, as she began to walk back from him, her hand in his outstretched between them.

"G'night." She mumbled, trying not to giggle with happiness.

"Goodnight." He squeezed her hand lightly before pulling away. She backed up more and in her distraction ran into the railing of the stairs that led to her apartment building when she tried to turn around. He chuckled as she blushed, and after a moment she finally managed to get herself into her building, Upon entering her apartment she giggled ecstatically and collapsed onto her bed. From what she knew about dating, which wasn't much, that had gone _very_ well.

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	2. Café

**Here is the second chapter, as you'll probably notice it's all super sweet mega fun fluff at the moment, there will be more serious points most likely but as for the begining of their relationship it will be pretty fluff-tastic. Enjoy.**

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Theme 2: Café

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Daine tapped her pencil against her book at a rapid pace as Numair sat next to her, explaining something from the text. Normally she listened intently but today she found herself distracted and kept fidgeting while glancing at Numair every few seconds. He had made no advances about a second date, had he lost interest? Did she do something wrong? She thought it had gone well but perhaps she had been mistaken. She looked around the small café they frequented and noticed that in the last hour it had pretty much emptied, only a few other people were there.

"More coffee miss?" Daine jumped, upsetting her empty cup and accidently elbowing Numair.

"Uh yes, please, sorry." The girl muttered turning red as the waitress refilled her cup. She glared at Numair who was looking at her, chuckling.

"That was absolutely charming" He said, teasing, only causing her to glare more. He turned back to the book for a moment, looking at it, before turning back to her.

"Would you like to go out with me again?" A small smile played over his lips and she had to stop herself from grinning ridiculously, she didn't want to seem _too_ eager.

"Yeah, I'd like that. Um, when did you have in mind?" She asked, taking a sip of her coffee and trying to seem nonchalant while hoping it was sometime very soon. He picked up her book and papers from the table and dropped them onto a nearby chair.

"How about right now?" He leaned back in his chair, looking at her expectantly. Well, that certainly was soon.

"Uh, well, uh" He cut her off, winking.

"Perfect, waitress!" He raised his hand, beckoning to the waitress "Would you bring us a very large slice of that chocolate cake you have? I mean like, a _really_ big piece." He spread his hands to the size of about _two whole_ cakes and Daine giggled.

"And how do you know I like chocolate cake?" She asked, teasingly, as the waitress walked away.

"Because you've been eyeing it since the day we started meeting here. I thought you were going to jump it a couple times." She blushed and he reached across the table to put a hand on hers, stroking it softly. The waitress returned with their order, which was indeed massive, and Daine made to move her hand away so he could eat but he held on, giving her a funny look.

"What kind of man do you think I am? I am perfectly capable of eating with my left hand thank you very much." He said in mock hurt. This was, in fact, entirely untrue. As Daine ate slowly, Numair struggled with his fork, often dropping it or missing the cake entirely. After a while he put his hand down and looked at the cake dejectedly and Daine laughed.

"Should I feed you then oh manly man?" She lifted a bite up to his mouth and he ate it happily before, finally giving in and removing his hand from hers, pulling a piece of cake off with his fingers and lifting it to her mouth. However when she leaned forward to take a bit he pushed his hand forward suddenly resulting in her getting chocolate all over her mouth. Daine glared in mock outrage as she licked off the worst of it. As she reached for a napkin Numair took it from her, gently.

"Allow me." He said, a mischievous look in his eyes. He wiped her mouth slowly, with her still glaring at him, and then put the napkin down and ran his thumb over her bottom lip tantalizingly slowly. She smiled against his finger and he pulled it back, a small dab of chocolate upon it, and licked the chocolate off of it. Daine bit her lip, smiling coyly at him as he leaned back.

"This cake _is_ good." He said, winking at her. They spent the rest of the time laughing and talking as they _slowly_ got through the rest of their dessert. She did however get very distracted when during their conversation she felt his leg move to rest against hers in what resulted to be a _very_ entertaining round of footsie.

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He walked her home again and outside of her door he pulled her in for a brief kiss before pulling back and twirling her hair around his finger.

"So, I think we should do this again." He said, as though he were talking about the weather.

"I think that I would be open to that idea." She nodded slowly, grinning up at him.

"To be more precise I think we should do this again, on a regular basis and often with the intention on going on even more after one is through before we have even gone on that one."

"I'm not entirely sure what you just said but I think I have a pretty good idea of what you mean."

"Daine, will you go steady with me?" He said with a goofy expression on his face as she winced at the term. She hit him lightly on the shoulder and turned to walk away.

"You blew it, too bad." She began to walk up the steps and felt his strong arms wrap around her waist, pulling her back as he laughed. Turning her around, he kissed her deeply before pulling back, a smile still on his face.

"I'll take that as a yes then?" He whispered, eyes sparkling with mischief.

"Well, I suppose. Nothing better to do anyway." She looked up at him impishly, she had the distinct feeling that this could all go _very_ well.

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	3. Movies

**Right so, I've had some questions about Tortall-verse and happened to wander into the forums section of to see if I could get them answered. Anybody else notice that it's, like, completely dead there? So I went to the Dancing Dove forums (which many of you may know) to find that at some point..that kind of started to die off too..a lot..which surprised me because there was a time where it was very lively. I find all of this sad because forums could be a really great resource, especially for writers to bounce ideas around or get information or just have random questions. So it's really sad that the forum life has just fizzled out...hmmm, maybe I should try to get one going. BTW anybody who could help with the questions I had! I won't type it all out again here because it's relatively long but it's on the 'got any theories?' forum here on OR at the Dancing Dove under the Tortall forum...any help would be greatly appreciated if anyone wouldn't mind heaidng over and taking a look. Anyway, without further ado, here's chapter 3!**

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Theme 3: Movies

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Daine glared heavily as they walked swiftly by a street vendor that she was sure they had past at least four times already.

"I know it's here somewhere, just took a wrong turn." Numair mumbled to himself, pulling her after him by the hand as he walked forward swiftly. Daine was practically jogging to keep up.

"Numair, we've already missed the beginning, why don't we just get something to eat?" She practically whined, they had been walking around the same three blocks for twenty minutes and she was _cold_.

"No, I said we'd go to the movies and we are going to the movies. Besides, there are other shows playing." He turned a corner swiftly and she swung out a bit, sliding through some slush. "Found it! We were just on the wrong street" He said, sounding plesed with himself.

"Oh really?" She said, her voice dripping with sarcasm "I thought it was just hiding" He turned to her, looking sheepish.

"Sorry" He shrugged and wrapped his arm around her, kissing her on the forehed swiftly, and ushering her into the theatre.

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Daine sat down, looking at the blank screen sceptically. The only movie they had shown up on time for was something that looked distinctly chick flick-esque and she had to admit, those weren't really her style. Numair sat down next to her, wrapping his arm around her shoulders, enough popcorn in his other to feed a small third world country for a month.

"What? Think I can't handle a girly movie?" He asked, seeing the look on her face. "Well I'll have you know I am plenty man enough to handle it" He smiled, thumping himself on the chest. The only problem was that he had attempted to do so with the hand holding the tub of popcorn. "Oops" He said, looking at the mess and he got up to brush himself off and Daine giggled.

"Nothing of the sort, I was just concerned that the previews will be the best part."

As it turned out, they were. People got sick, mothers yelled, girls cried when they were happy AND sad and Daine was completely lost. She stared at the screen with the face of someone who was trying to figure out a particularly tricky math problem as she tried to decipher what was going on. It was like the few times she had tried to watch the Women's Entertainment channel. The storylines baffled her; she couldn't understand why everyone _cried_ so much or why their problems were actually _problems_. She looked over to Numair to see the exact same expression on his face and leaned over to rest against him, whispering in her ear.

"What's going on?"

"Um, well…Blanche is crying because Jeff broke her vase. I think."

"I thought Blanche was dead"

"Then who the hell is that?"

"Her sister wasn't it? Or long lost father?" Daine giggled. "And I thought Jeff was in jail."

"They sent him to jail for breaking a vase."

"I think it was an urn"

"Ew, Then who's that guy?"

"Sam?"

"Shouldn't he be at Mount Doom by now?" Daine laughed as Numair completely gave up and was shushed violently by people in the front rows. She shrunk into Numairs shoulder and he looked down at her, a mischievous smile playing over his face. He lifted her chin with his fingers and kissed her lightly, pulling her closer to him. Luckily they had sat in the back corner as it didn't stay light for long. Daine soon wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed herself against him, as much as she could in a movie theatre seat anyway. He deepened the kiss and she stifled a gasp. Sure he had kissed her goodnight a couple times but nothing like _this_. She pulled back, smiling at him.

"You've been holding out" She whispered, her eyes glimmering and he smiled back at her, leaning forward and grazing her earlobe with his lips.  
"You have no idea." The heat in his voice made her shiver and soon they were once again wrapped around each other. They carried on for quite some time and Daine, feeling fair forward, put her hand on his knee and slid it up his thigh slowly, but with sufficient pressure. She felt him laugh into her mouth and let her hand come to rest on his upper thigh, squeezing slightly. One of Numair's hands, to her absolute delight, had long ago occupied itself with teasing the strip of skin above the waist of her jeans and she was beginning to think of subtle ways in which to get him to move a bit higher when suddenly the lights came on and the two jumped apart. Daine looked in front of her to see that the credits were rolling and that the few people in the theatre were beginning to stand up and stretch.

"It's over?" She said in a devastated voice "But it was so _good_" Numair laughed as he stood up, pulling his coat on and straightening it awkwardly in front of him, his movements a bit strange.

"Come on" He said smiling at her and holding out her coat.

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They walked along the street, at a deliberately slow pace, chatting idly when Daine grinned up at Numair impishly.

"So" She said trailing off.

"So?" He stopped, looking down at her, and wrapped his arms around her shoulders.

"I think we should go to that movie every night for the rest of the week" She said in her most serious voice, looking into his eyes solemnly, and he laughed as he lifted her up to kiss her beneath the light of the streetlamp.

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	4. Shopping

**Enjoy!:) Thanks to all the amazing reviewers who have given me their support so far! You guys rock!**

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Theme 4: Shopping

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Daine swore as she dug through her medicine cabinet and found her box of tampons only to discover she only had one. Her language became more pronounced as she fumbled with it as she turned to leave the small bathroom and it fell into the open toilet. She bit her thumbnail and hurried into her bedroom, that had been her last box and she had none in her purse. Glancing at the clock she swore again, Numair would be there for their date in a matter of minutes. She sighed and went to her closet, pulling out her jacket. She supposed it would be fine; they were only going to dinner after all. A few moments later there was a knock on the door and Daine opened it to reveal Numair.

"You look lovely" Numair said smiling and she blushed.

"Thank you, you're rather pretty too" She rose up onto her tiptoes to kiss him swiftly as she closed the door. "So where are we going?"

"Well, there's this little place I know a ways from here. I made out reservations for about an hour from now; I hope you don't mind a bit of a walk. I thought it might be fun, it's been warming up." He smiled at her and she tried to return it while doing the math in her head. An hours walk, dinner and an hours walk back; she grimaced as she slung her arm through Numair's and they headed outside.

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Forty-five minutes later Daine was fidgeting as they walked down the street, unsure of how to handle the situation. Perhaps the bathrooms at the restaurant would have some of those vending machines? She bit her lip, it had sounded like a rather fancy place and those rarely had anything you could get for twenty-five cents. Spotting a grocery store across the street she made a quick decision and turned to Numair.

"Uh, could we stop in there for just a minute?" She asked, not quite looking him in the eye as he looked at his watch.

"Uh, well sure, if we're quick" They made their way across the street and into the store quickly.

"Um, well, uh, you don't have to come. I mean, you can stay here is you want." Highly dreading the idea of Numair knowing that she had interrupted their date to buy tampons Daine was trying to find a way to make him nicely _go away_.

"Yes, because walking down a couple aisles is _such_ a task" He said in mock horror, a hand splayed dramatically across his chest. They walked down a couple aisles before Numair stopped quickly, distracted.

"Uh, I need some new razors actually." He rubbed a hand over his jaw and let go of her arm "You go ahead okay? I'll catch up" She nodded, relieved, as he walked down the aisle and sped up.

She sighed in relief as she took a box from the shelf and turned to head back down the row but slowed down as she passed a row of toothpaste; she paused for a moment before deciding that it wouldn't hurt to get one as long as she was here. After picking one out she walked halfway down the row and turned around to grab some floss. She walked out of the aisle and looked around for Numair before remembering that she needed paper towels. Biting her nails she glanced around again and when she saw Numair nowhere she turned down another aisle.

After getting what she swore was her _final_ item she ran into Numair, holding a package of razors and a box of poptarts. He looked up and saw her, glancing at the items in her hands as she hid the tampon box behind the towels.

"Oh, uh, what aisle are those in? I'm out" He asked, eyes falling on the towels.

"Um, this one right here" She pointed, which was rather ineffective due to her full arms. "Where did you get the poptarts?" They suddenly sounded very good.

"Uh, over in that direction somewhere" He waved his hand vaguely as they headed towards the paper towels. "Do you know where the dish soap would be?"

"Uh, here, give me what you have while you look for it and I'll get us baskets" They were accumulating quite a load and she was not the best juggler.

A few moments later Daine returned with a basket for each of them and a little while after that they had managed to fill both with various and sundry things which they had neglected to buy earlier in the week. Suddenly Daine stopped, putting a hand to her face.

"Dinner" She groaned and Numair looked at his watch grimacing.

"We have most definitely missed the reservation." He looked at her apologetically and she waved him off.

"It's okay; I asked to come in here. I didn't mean to get quite so carried away."

"I think we can both be blames when it comes to getting carried away." He looked at his own basket which was filled with an assortment of items, mostly snack foods while Daine's was filled almost entirely with household items. "So, you must be hungry. What would you like to do now?"

"Um, well, here" She grabbed a package of food from the shelf behind her and held it up to him.

"Microwaveable mashed potatoes?" He made a face. "That just isn't right."

"They really aren't that bad" Daine said shrugging and he looked up at her in disbelief.

"You don't cook at _all_ do you?"

"Only when forced and even then there are microwaveable instructions involved."

"I'm concerned that you need instructions for your microwave"

"You should be concerned about what happens when I _don't_ have them" He laughed and turned towards the shelf.

"Let's see what else we can find"

"Did I tell you I burned Campbell's instant soup in the microwave once?"

"I'm actually a little impressed that you can burn soup. Impressed and scared"

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"That woman in the coffee shop looked really confused when we asked if we could just have hot water."

"I still can't believe they charged us full tea price for it" Daine replied. They had found some rather intriguing instant noodles in the grocery store and had then stopped at a nearby coffee shop to find some hot water where, thankfully, Daine had been able to slip away and use the bathroom. Now, the two sat on plastic patio furniture outside of a store that was closed for the evening eating instant noodles and drinking juice boxes.

"Well, I have to say that this is the classiest date I've ever brought a girl out on" Numair said, swelling up his chest and striking a pose as Daine laughed.

"Well I have no complaints" Said Daine, smiling.

"Eat your noodles" Numair said in mock authority and Daine laughed as Numair accidently squeezed his juice box too hard and spilled juice into his noodles. He picked up the container and made a face at the now purple tinged broth. "Ew" He said simply and Daine laughed harder. He looked up at her and grinned. "Well, you'll just have to share." He reached across the table and grabbed her noodles from her hands and she shrieked and stood up, going to the other side of the table and trying to take them from her. He held them out of her reach and pulled her into his lap, kissing her lightly.

"Well, I suppose you could have _some_." She said as he pulled away and wrapped his arms around her. She settled into the curve of his arms and watched the sky as snow began to fall around them. Apparently she wouldn't have to apologize for ruining their date after all.

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